A distinguishing feature of language is our ability to refer to absent things, known as displaced reference. A speaker can bring distant referents to mind in the absence of any obvious stimuli. Thoughts, not limited to the here and now, can pop into our heads for unfathomable reasons. This ability to think about distant things necessarily precedes the ability to talk about them. Thought precedes meaningful referential communication. A prerequisite for the emergence of human-like meaningful symbols is that the mental categories they relate to can be invoked even in the absence of immediate stimuli.
Started 4 months ago by Shashank in
Explanatory Answer
The main idea of the given paragraph is that the ability to think about distant things precedes meaningful referential communication. Option 2 sums this up correctly.
Option 1 is incorrect, as it states that thoughts precede "all speech acts". The paragraph only states that thoughts precede meaningful referential communication. Both options 3 and 4 rule that displaced reference—the ability to think about distant objects—is unique to humans. The paragraph does not say this.
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